Dr. Julie Fernandez has served in the education community for 36 years. After graduating from the University of South Carolina with a B.A. in Elementary Education, she and her husband moved to Houston, where she taught elementary and junior high school for 11 years. Dr. Fernandez earned a masters degree from the University of Houston- Clear Lake in Reading and completed post-graduate work in Education Administration. She then became an elementary school assistant principal and elementary principal in Clear Creek Independent School District, and subsequently a principal in a Title I elementary school in Houston Independent School District. Her doctorate from the University of Houston is in Executive Leadership in 2012, where her research focused on Transformational Leadership in Public School Principals. After graduating from UH, she became a full-time faculty member in their Educational Leadership program. She taught graduate and doctoral students in educational leadership and served as a Chair of numerous dissertations.

Dr. Fernandez came to Houston Baptist University in 2015 from a desire to incorporate the Christian worldview into school leaders’ development. She initially started as an assistant professor and taught undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral courses in education. The dean appointed her Program Coordinator of the Education Administration Program, Department Chair of Leadership and Counseling. She was appointed dean of the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences in 2018. Dr. Fernandez accepted the appointment as dean of the College of Education at Charleston Southern University on January 1, 2021.

Dr. Fernandez’s research interest involves school culture and climate, teacher leadership development, and organizational health-based leadership. She has co-written her book, Influencing Student High Achievement through School Climate: A Quantitative Approach to Organizational Health-based Leadership. Dr. Fernandez has been married to her husband Robert for 35 years, and they have two grown daughters, Mary, a chemical engineer, and Sarah, a pediatric nurse practitioner. Dr. Fernandez and her husband were active members of their church, where they led small home groups, coached small group leaders, and led Bible studies. They feel blessed to return to the Low Country, a place that has always been in their hearts and home.

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